to the court of France. In May, 1766, he was appointed secretaryof-state for the Southern department, in which post he remained till succeeded by Lord Shelburne, who went in on the 2d of August the same year with the earl of Chatham.

"From that remarkable period," says a contemporary, "his grace has continued uniformly in opposition, and that on the broadest foun dation. He does not confine his disapprobation to men only, nor yet to particular measures; but he grounds it on the cause, the motives, and the views which have brought in such men, which have produced such measures, a secret, overruling, hidden influence, directed to the introduction of a nefarious court-system, a system of simple favouritism, by which every thing in cabinet, parliament, and elsewhere, is to be conducted and tried by the test of private judgment, in contradistinction to, and in defiance of, public opinion. To pursue his grace through the wide circle of parliamentary opposition is not our intention; the main object of these inquiries being chiefly to connect the conduct of public men with the affairs of America, we shall consider his grace's, for the greater part, in that point of view.

"Lord Hillsborough, in the year 1768, wrote two official letters, which, perhaps, in a great measure, howsoever well-intended, have sown the seeds of the present unhappy civil war. One of them contained instructions to Governor Bernard to dissolve the assembly of Massachusetts Bay; the other directing the several American governors to assure the respective assemblies in the provinces where they presided, that no further taxes were meant to be laid on America; and that such as were already laid on would be repealed on commercial principles: these letters being further accompanied by private confidential assurances from administration, in some instances; and in others, as personally coming from the king; one of them indeed so strong that his majesty was made to say, that he would rather lose his crown than preserve it by deceit.' Thus the Americans were taught by one letter to perceive that the future freedom of the deliberation of the assembly of Massachusetts Bay, and consequently of every other assembly on the continent, depended on their resolution to resist a menace which presented the alternative of either submitting to the mandate of a British secretary-of-state, or to a temporary suspension tending to terminate in a total dissolution of civil government. By means such as these the colonies were taught by administration to hold the British parliament in contempt, when they found the king in one instance, and his ministers in the other, pledging themselves for the eventual resolutions of that degenerate and prostitute assembly. Such endeavours suggested besides, to those who saw farther, that when it should be found necessary to employ parliament for the purpose, those promises on the part of the crown might be disclaimed or controlled by the legislature; and the ministerial authority on which the circular letter was written might be disavowed by succeeding ministers, as a rash ill-judged promise, which neither their successors in office or parliament were by any means bound to perform or fulfil. What foundation there might have been for the preceding observations we do not pretend to determine; we

Lord Bottetourt's speech to the assembly of Virginia, in explanation of the circulatory letter here adverted to.

only meant to state them shortly, as being the substance of the eighteen celebrated resolutions moved for by his grace in the house of lords, on the 18th of May, 1770, which produced one of the most extraordinary debates that we ever remember to have been present at. The whole of the misconduct of ministers in relation to America, for the four preceding years, was laid open in the most pointedly severe terms; the then state of that country was most strikingly depictured; and the disseveration of it (to use one of Mr Solicitor's technical expressions) was predicted in terms the most confident and unconditional; yet administration remained in a kind of political apathy. Lord Hillsborough rather palliated the measures on the stale doctrine of state-necessity, than offered to defend either himself or his colleagues; and very modestly, though he owned himself 'the culprit' [his own words], moved for an adjournment.

"We find his grace, as often as an opportunity offered, continually recurring to the same ground, and as continually overpowered by numbers. His repeated contests with administration the whole of the spring session seventy-five will bear testimony what his opinions have uniformly been on the present disputes subsisting between this country and America. His grace distinguished himself particularly in opposing the Prohibitory fishery bill, and in supporting the petition from his majesty's natural-born subjects residing in Canada, praying that the law passed the preceding session, for regulating the government of Quebec, might be repealed. Time only can discover whether his grace has not been as able a politician, as he has uniformly proved himself to be a sound, at least a sincere and steady, patriot. On the opening of the last session, (1776,) administration began to feel him a most weighty as well as warm antagonist. Besides his general grounds of opposition he opened several new ones. He proved that the nation had been led imperceptibly into the present unnatural civil war; that ministers answered for matters of which they were entirely ignorant, and deceived parliament with a previous intention of doing so. He pointed particularly at the first lord of the admiralty, who, in the preceding session assured the house, that 22,000 seamen and marines would answer all the purposes of home-protection and American hostility, and who, the first day of next session, had the temerity to tell parliament, that he knew the force was not sufficient, but he concealed his knowledge of it for fear the measure at large would not meet with their concurrence and support. His grace took a very warm and active part in the motions of the duke of Manchester, on the introduction of the Hanover troops into Gibraltar and Minorca; and the duke of Grafton's, relative to the number of British troops serving in America, and those in the provincial service. He moved for the examination of Mr Penn, relative to the petition of the congress, and to the general state and disposition of the people of America; by which he proved this very important point, that whatever the intentions might be of a few ambitious fiery spirits in all parts of America, or of the Northern colonies, that a very great majority of all degrees of people totally disapproved of any attempt to render themselves independent of the parent state. His grace abounds with information well-selected. He arranges his matter judiciously, and seldom brings any thing forward that does not immediately concern the subject of debate, and is likewise important in itself. He

is able in reply, and never fails to point out and detect, wherever his adversaries endeavour to palliate, falsify, or misrepresent. This, joined to his great sources of information, his personal boldness, his warmth of expression, his energy on some occasions, and his coolness and recollection on others, unite to render him a most useful speaker and formidable antagonist. On the other hand, his tedious, unmarked manner of speaking, his slow costive delivery, his frequent pauses and want of recollection, leave him far behind several as a public speaker, who are destined to follow him on the same side. In fine, it is his matter, and his sincerity, not his oratory, that renders him at present so valuable to the English nation, so prized by his party, so detested by the junto, so feared by the ostensible ministers, and so obnoxious to a certain great man. The duke of Richmond, as one of the leaders of a powerful party, as a public man and peer of parliament, is one out of the very few who has preserved an uniformity of conduct; has been steady in his principles, open and undisguised in his sentiments, inflexible in his opinions, unremitted in his opposition to what he thought was wrong; staunch, sincere, and unmoved by any extrinsic consideration in support of whatever he imagined was right. His opposition has been uniform, never languid; it is not mixed with indolence, inattention, and a certain tone of pliability,-a certain air of political charity, —a certain trimming, lukewarm disposition. No; the duke of Richmond has not attended his duty in parliament merely to give a silent vote! He has not absented himself on purpose to create an apology for his non-attendance. He has not delivered his sentiments by halves, in order to let one part of the measure pass unnoticed, and the other unreproved, in the terms it deserved. He has not spared ministers when they deserved it, out of a mixture of court and parliamentary complaisance. Though bred and educated a modern whig, he has not learned the whole of their creed by heart; nor brought himself up to the docility of practising a fifth of it."

When the duke's party was again called into office his grace was made a knight of the Garter, and master-general of the ordnance. Soon after the breaking up of the coalition ministry we find his grace strenuously advocating the necessity of parliamentary reform, and he for some time presided over the Constitutional Society' established to effect this purpose.

In 1795 the duke resigned the master-generalship, and obtained the command of the Horse-guards. He died in 1806.

Lord Thurlow.

BORN A. D. 1736.-DIED A. D. 1806.

LORD THURLOw was the son of a clergyman at Ashfield in Suffolk. When some one was endeavouring to trace his descent to Thurloe, Cromwell's secretary, he interrupted the speaker by observing: "There were two Thurlows in my county,-Thurlow the secretary, and Thurlow the carrier,-I am descended from the latter." He studied at Cambridge, and, having become a member of the Inner Temple, was called to the bar in 1758. Sir Fletcher Norton, afterwards Lord

Grantley, at this period was the most prominent lawyer at the English bar. As his old antagonist, Serjeant Davy, was no more, and Dunning had scarcely yet disclosed those great talents which at length placed him at the top of the profession, it was difficult, in the language of the day, to pit any one against him. Thurlow, who was better known at this period at Nando's than at Westminster hall, had, however, found means to distinguish himself among his friends; and as his figure, his voice, and his manner, were known to be efficient, it was at last determined by a resolute attorney to intrust the conduct of an important cause to his care. It was on this occasion,-which probably proved decisive of his fate,—that he entered the lists with a veteran who had hitherto been considered as the boldest practitioner at the English bar, and came off victorious.

The Douglas cause on which occasion Mr Thurlow happened to be on the fortunate side-opened a still wider field for his talents and abilities. He had then to contend in a great and popular cause, in behalf of the claims of a minor, in opposition to one of the most illustrious families in North Britain; and he acquitted himself in such a manner as to enhance his reputation in no common degree. He deemed it necessary, however, in vindicating the legitimate pretensions of his noble client, to attack a gentleman, engaged on the other side, with some degree of asperity, and a challenge, followed by a meeting in the field, was the consequence. The reputation of Mr Thurlow was thus raised suddenly, yet his practice was not, at that or any other time, considerable; and he would never have attained, perhaps, the honours that now awaited him, but for the political influence of the Bedford party. The patronage of the duchess of Queensborough obtained for him a silk gown; and in the year 1770, on Dunning's resignation, he was appointed solicitor-general. The next year he succeeded Sir William de Grey as attorney-general, and was returned to parliament for Tamworth.

Thurlow's style of speaking in the house of commons was coarse, vehement, and overbearing. The positions too which he defended were little calculated to win him popular favour. He strenuously defended the current doctrine as to libels, and spoke of the institution of a jury in terms of no measured contempt. He spoke of the freedom of the press as a pernicious thing, and in the debate on the Massachusetts bill boldly asserted the right of the mother country to tax the colonists, and urged the most vigorous measures against the Americans, of whom he spoke in the most unmeasured terms of contempt. "Treason and rebellion," he exclaimed in the debate for suspending the habeas corpus act, "are properly and peculiarly the native growth of America." Lord North rewarded Thurlow, for the support which he had received from him during the contest with America, by promoting him to the woolsack on the retirement of Lord Bathurst, on the 2d of June, 1778. He was also raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Thurlow of Ashfield. On this occasion, Cowper, the poet, who had been Thurlow's fellow-student in the Temple, addressed to him some elegant complimentary verses.

The personal regard of the king preserved Thurlow in the cabinet on the accession of the marquess of Rockingham to the premiership. But he was ultimately expelled by the coalition ministry in 1783.

He still, however, retained the confidence of the king, and is supposed to have been his majesty's secret adviser during the existence of the opposition in power. When Pitt assumed the reins of government, the great seal was instantly replaced in Thurlow's hands. Yet it is notorious that he played a double part on the regency question, and consented to negotiate with the leaders on the prince's side. Pitt soon discovered this double dealing, and in the session of 1792 came to an open rupture with the chancellor. It is probable that Thurlow had over-estimated the value which the king had set upon his services, and deceived himself into the belief that when his majesty should have to choose betwixt the resignation of his chancellor or that of his premier, he would accept the latter alternative. If such were his calculations, the event disappointed him; for on Pitt representing to the king the impossibility of his remaining in office in conjunction with Thurlow, the great seal was demanded from his lordship, and put into commission.

From this period Thurlow's public life may be said to have closed. He occasionally spoke in parliament, but he never again held office. Meanwhile having purchased an estate in the neighbourhood of Dulwich, Lord Thurlow ordered a house to be built on a rising ground for his accommodation. A regular estimate was accordingly made out by an eminent architect, and the mansion completed, but the final charge was so disproportionate to the sum originally proposed, that the noble lord exclaimed, "that he would never either enter or pay for it, but remain in his farm-house to the day of his death." As he had exhibited great attachment to the king during the discussion of the regency bill, so he afterwards enjoyed the intimacy and the confidence of the prince of Wales, and is supposed to have been the adviser of his royal highness on many critical and important occasions. For several years his lordship divided his time between Dulwich and Brighton; at the latter of which he usually spent some of the summer months, during which he rode on the fine Sussex downs, enjoyed the bracing air of the sea, and occasionally saw and conversed with the heir to the crown. He died at Brighton on the 12th of September, 1806. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall says: "As speaker of the upper house, Lord Thurlow fulfilled all the expectations previously entertained of him. His very person, figure, voice, and manner were formed to lend dignity to the woolsack, of a dark complexion, and harsh but regular features, with a severe and commanding demeanour which might be sometimes denominated stern, he impressed his auditors with awe before he opened his lips. Energy, acuteness, and prodigious powers of argument characterized him in debate." Nathaniel adds that "his temper was morose, sullen, and untractable, sometimes mastering his reason." Of his eloquence, Mr Butler in his Reminiscences,' gives us the following account: "At times Lord Thurlow was superlatively great. It was the good fortune of the reminiscent to hear his celebrated reply to the duke of Grafton during the inquiry into Lord Sandwich's administration of Greenwich hospital. His grace's action and delivery, when he addressed the house, were singularly dignified and graceful; but his matter was not equal to his manner. He reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent admission into the peerage: particular circumstances caused Lord Thurlow's reply to make a deep impression on the reminiscent. His lordship had spoken too often, and